Entrepreneurs Week is a collaborative effort organised by University of Melbourne student Amir Nissen and units at the University of Melbourne which have an interest in facilitating and supporting entrepreneurship and innovation, to demonstrate the value of entrepreneurship and its place within the University and society at large. The event was supported by ISSNIP, in particular the ICT & Entrepreneurship Panel discussion on the information and communication technology industry, featuring ISSNIP convenor Palaniswami as a panel member.

The aims of Entrepreneurs Week 2008 were:

• To raise awareness of entrepreneurship to the student population at the University of Melbourne, in particular to highlight the value the University offers as a platform for entrepreneurship.
• Educate students on the challenges start-ups face.
• Highlight the different perspectives between start-ups and investors.
• Exemplify the resources within the University to provide knowledge and guidance, access to cutting edge technology, and links to the business community.

It provided an opportunity to engage students in the entrepreneurial process, and educate them on some of the initiatives, past and present, undertaken by members of the University. Key participants included: NICTA, ISSNIP, Deloitte, Melbourne Ventures, Asialink, AIESEC, VEIL, Anthill Australia. The week was broken down into two segments - nightly seminars featuring a panel of speakers focusing on a particular topic (Student start-ups, ICT, Sustainable entrepreneurship, & Global entrepreneurship, respectively); and an ‘Innovators Challenge’ competition spanning the course of the week. Whilst the seminars were well received, by far the highlight of Entrepreneurs Week 2008 was the Innovators Challenge – a competition challenging students to create as much value as possible in just 6 days, using an ordinary household object (paper
cups for 2008). With close to 100 people at the launch, and 18 teams entering the challenge, it proved to be a crowd favourite.
The competition winners for Biggest Impact category, ‘A Cup of Hope’, collected 1000 messages of hope to inspire breast cancer
sufferers. Their effort was recognized by Peter McCallum Cancer Centre and displayed the cups at Federation Square during breast
cancer awareness month in October. Their winning submission can be seen at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YAEBG0TP6S8

Over the course of Entrepreneurs Week 2008, approximately 350 students, staff and interested outsiders attended the events. In the preceding week, the website received over 1000 unique visitors, with the same again for the week of the event. The feedback from attendees was overwhelmingly positive and has inspired the organisers to make Entrepreneurs Week 2009 bigger and better. ISSNIP will once again support the event as part of its education program.